Blogging Regrets?

crop female freelancer using laptop at table at home

So, Fandango (I’m sure you’ve seen me write about him before) posted a few days ago about regrets he had during his blogging career (is it fair to call blogging a career?).

He, like me, started his blogging on Blogger. Now, Fandango regretted not starting on WordPress. I weighed all the options back in 2005 when I launched my blog. When Blogger was acquired by Google, I thought that this would be the BEST platform. And, well, I was wrong about that. I shifted over the WordPress years ago, and haven’t really updated my Blogger site (just a few random posts here and there). But Blogger gets far more hits than the WordPress site. Last month, Blogger got 1,008 hits while WordPress got 221. I expect the Blogger stats may be misleading, but I haven’t spent any time researching that.

Anyway, be that as it may. Stats are only so valuable. I get more engagement on WordPress, like the interface better, and find the ecosystem of plugins wonderful. So, though I don’t exactly regret my time with Blogger, I am glad I made the move to WordPress.

WordPress Tip: Comment Moderation

WordPress Logo

A blogger I follow is being harassed on her site. She’s done a key thing: blocking the email addresses from setting up new accounts and providing more abusive comments. One thing that people can do in addition: set comments for manual approval. Though it doesn’t prevent someone from sending you abusive comments, it does prevent them from being seen on YOUR site. It’s a simple process to set up.

First, head to your dashboard. Scroll down the left-hand side until you see “settings”. Click on that, the look for the link to “Discussion” (the image directly below is from the WordPress.com dashboard, linked via JetPack. If you’re in your site’s dashboard, you’ll see “Discussion” open up below…that’s the third image below). The last part is simply checking “Comment must be manually approved” then clicking “Save Settings”. Now, any time someone posts a comment, you’ll get a message asking if you want to approve it. It provides some sense of security via control.

WordPress.com Comment Approval Image
WordPress.com Comment Approval Image 1

WordPress Comment Approval Image
WordPress.com Comment Approval Image 2

Here’s where to find it on your self-hosted WordPress Dashboard.

WordPress Comment Approval Direct
WordPress Comment Approval Direct